Oct. 13, 2022
Program News

Astrobiologists Among AGU Section Awardees and Named Lecturers

The 2022 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Section Awardees and Named Lecturers have been announced and the list includes prominent figures in astrobiology.

The Biogeosciences section selected Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University to deliver this year’s Carl Sagan Lecture, which is presented each year at the AGU Fall Meeting. Anbar has a long and influential career in astrobiology and has served as a principal investigator on projects supported by the NASA Astrobiology Program. Anbar is currently a co-lead of the NASA Research Coordination Network, LIFE: Early Cells to Multicellularity.

From the AGU:
The Carl Sagan Lecture is presented annually and recognizes a scientist who embodies Carl Sagan’s interest in astrobiology, as well as his effective science communication skills. This lecture honors the life of Carl Sagan, an astronomer and astrophysicist who was a leader in establishing the field of astrobiology. Sagan was also a tireless educator, author, and advocate for the space sciences.

Anbar joins a list of NASA-supported astrobiologists who have previously been selected to deliver the Carl Sagan Lecture, including the 2021 recipient, Sarah Stewart Johnson (Georgetown University).

Arizona State University geochemist Ariel Anbar addresses the audience in a plenary session at AbSciCon 2017.
Arizona State University geochemist Ariel Anbar addresses the audience in a plenary session at AbSciCon 2017.Image credit: NASA Astrobiology.

Mackenzie Day of the University of California, Los Angeles, has been named as the recipient of the Ronald Greeley Early Career Award in Planetary Sciences. Day is a former NASA Postdoctoral Fellow and performed research on a number of NASA Astrobiology-supported teams. Her work has helped to elucidate details about active dune fields on Mars, including in Gale crater, the landing site of NASA’s Curiosity rover.

The Ronald Greeley Early Career Award in Planetary Sciences is an annual award that recognizes significant contributions in science from honorees within six years of receiving their Ph.D.


Countdown to Mars: Dr. Mackenzie Day. Credit: NASA Astrobiology

Phoebe Cohen of Williams College and her colleagues on the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) team have been honored with the Science and Society Team Award. In her research, Cohen works to reconstruct ancient organisms and ecosystems on Earth by using a wide variety of laboratory techniques combined with field-based geological studies. Cohen has also worked diligently to improve the community in which science is done, and helped to support and inspire future astrobiologists as the Education and Outreach Lead for the former NASA Astrobiology team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). URGE is a curriculum that was designed to help researchers in fields related to geoscience develop “policies that improve accessibility, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (AJEDI) in the workplace and community.” A major goal of the URGE curriculum is to deepen the community’s knowledge of how racism affects the participation of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in geoscience research.

From the AGU:
The Science and Society Team Award is presented annually and recognizes a team who employs collaborative models of scientific research, demonstrate equitable distribution of the outputs and impacts of research, and elevate efforts to produce and translate scientific knowledge to serve society. This award is unique in that it is tailored to award a team of researchers and their partners representing both scientific and societal interests, with the goal of jointly addressing societal needs.

Phoebe Cohen at the Museum of Science’s Earth Day open house event when working as the E/PO lead for the former NAI team at MIT.
Phoebe Cohen at the Museum of Science’s Earth Day open house event when working as the E/PO lead for the former NAI team at MIT.Image credit: NASA Astrobiology.

The full list of the 2022 AGU section awardees and named lecturers is available from the American Geophysical Union by clicking here.

Related Links:
Carl Sagan Lecture (AGU)
Astrobiologists among the 2021 AGU Fellows, Section Awardees, and Union Medal Recipients
NASA Astrobiology Unveils New Research Coordination Network at AbSciCon 2022 (NASA)